1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an interconnection system, and in particular to an inter-network connection system which can be used to provide connections between a plurality of telecommunications carrier networks. The present invention also relates to an interface board and a traffic control method for use in such an interconnection system.
2. Description of the Background Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,901 to Byers et al., discloses a backplane-based interconnection system. The backplane-based interconnection system disclosed includes a backplane with a plurality of traces coupled to slots for receiving circuit packs. The backplane traces are configured to form point-to-point connections from one slot of the backplane to every other slot of the backplane. A hub circuit is provided on each circuit pack for coupling the circuit pack to the point-to-point connections on the backplane. The circuit packs communicate by direct connections over the point-to-point connections or indirectly by sending traffic through the point-to-point connections and hub circuits.
However, in the case of Byers et al., the point-to-point connections are always provided on the backplane such that there is a problem that the capacity of processing the traffic of the backplane becomes a bottleneck to limit the traffic capacity in regard to parallel processing.
In an application where traffic streams through a plurality of ports cross each other in a common interfacing section such as a backplane, security vulnerability often becomes actualized.
Because of this, there is desired a high security inter-network connection system attaining the increased capacity of processing traffic in parallel.